wanderer

sitting outside on a bench, she drank a smoothie she bought at a nearby store. today, lucy had auditions for a local play– it wouldn’t be paid, but it would be her first time acting since she left la. she wanted to disassociate la with acting so that she could keep on loving it. she wanted this role so bad; she needed to be on the stage. she nervously tapped her fingers on the table, unsure of what to do with herself until the audition. she was getting insecure again, and she always got in her head when she was insecure and it was just a mess. looking up, she called out to the person walking by her. “hey! if you were directing a play, would you cast me in it?”

although summertime brought its fair share of a heavy workload, there was another mark of the season that yejin appreciated greatly: the weather. she walked through the park, reveling in the warmth from above and the beauty of the green surrounding her. the only thing that could pull her from her reverie was the greeting and question that suddenly hit the air from nearby. she came to a full stop and turned to face the stranger.

“ah, hi! i—” she paused and tilted her head to one side, considering the question. then after a single nod, she continued, “i think i would. what kind of play would i be directing?”

“Fandom related things.” She reached into the bag and pulled out some Doctor Who pins. “This one is the TARDIS. And these are various Doctors.” She quickly returned them and reached for some more. “These I’m super happy about, I dont have any supernatural pins yet!” There was one with characters from the show on it and the others had symbols on it.

“ha! looks like i beat you to that,” eddy said with a grin, relaxing back against his chair. he still had a little while to think of something, but maybe speaking to the people of cape hazel might conjure up at least a little bit of inspiration and creativity in him. he looked at his new companion when she asked about the pride float, scratching his head while he thought of the best way to explain it. “it’s like…you know those massive things that roll down the street during, like, any parade? they’re decorated and sometimes have people on them, but it’s one of those, basically,” he shrugged, “and i’m sure my kid would have some great ideas, but she’s three. i’m pretty sure the entire thing would be made out of glitter.”

“a celebration for what? whatever it is, you know i’m down for a good party,” piper chirped, following yejin’s pause with her own. she racked her brain for the quote that yejin mentioned, but she was hitting nothing. “a friend in need… honestly, i’ve no idea what the quote is, but we could always make our own. a friend in need… is looking for some beads…? i’ve never been that great with words. we can come up with something while we clean the beach.” piper handed yejin the clipboard happily, excitedly waiting for her signature. “with your signature, we’re one step closer to finally doing something!”

“for another big job well done.” yejin refrainedfrom adding that she was also terribly homesick. “i want to see if i can make one of my favorite dishes! so, ah— not really a party party, but a nice night in?”

“Hey I only agreed to come out for Pride as support!” Noah said shrugging  his  shoulders as he stood next to the person he’d come with, sure he felt awkward as a straight man at Cape Hazel’s Pride event but he’d always supported his small  group of friends no matter what their sexual orientation was. “So you gonna show me around or not?”

“i’ve got a petition to organize a beach clean up, and it looks like you’ve got a feast to prepare for,” piper replied with a soft laugh. she tucked her clipboard under her arm, fully prepared to take on any grocery bags if they came down falling. “are you interested in helping out? obviously you don’t have to commit if you write your name down, but i think it’d be great to get as many people as we can!”

“i’m celebrating! would you like to join me?” a wide grin spread across yejin’s face as she nodded once. "sure! a friend in need is a friend...” yejin’s expression faltered as she failed to remember the rest of the phrase. what was it again? when her words returned, they were softer. “something about a good deed?... i think...” 

“you got any ideas for this pride float project thing we’ve been assigned?” eddy asked, turning to whoever would listen. he was completely stuck for ideas, and seeing as though he hadn’t technically ever labelled his sexuality or formed a creative bone in his body, he was looking for inspiration wherever he could. “i’m close to just letting my kid draw something up for me.”

“Come on let’s go check out the booths!” Carolina exclaimed trying to be heard over the din of the crowd around them pleading with the person who’d agreed to come with her. “I promise it’ll be fun! There’s jewelry, clothing and baked goods made by yours truly!”

“Not this time.” Eva laughed. Her quilting adventures were over for now. “Just getting some fun pins to put on things.” She held up her purse. “I needed to add more to my growing collection.”

a slow day at the diner - not particularly unusual, after the general lunch rush, and bea was always grateful for the downtime between lunch and dinner. it gave her time to just sit and rest her feet for a while. today, she leaned on the counter and scribbled in her journal, humming quietly now and then - something a patron had said earlier had been stuck in her head and it made a perfect lyric for a song. the bell above the door dinged merrily and bea straightened up, shutting her notebook and pushing her hair back, greeting the newcomer with a smile. “welcome to around the clock! how are you?”

although she had been in cape hazel for a few months, there was still plenty more to discover— entire spots that yejin had yet to set foot in and even most minute details that she would revel in throughout subsequent visits. today was time for the latter. she could count the number of times she had been in around the clock on one hand on one hand. a good omen, she told herself, describing the bright and blue sky that she walked underneath. these words seemed to ring true as soon as she stepped through the door.

“ah— hi!” yejin bowed her head and clenched one hand into a fist as her other tugged against the sling of her bag. “i’m hungry,” she declared, following shortly with, “i’m ready for good food. how are you?”

armed with another clipboard, piper loitered on the corner by the grocery store to get more signatures to clean up the beach. “our town is beautiful, and it can be even more beautiful if we all got together to clean that beach!” she called out, desperate for somebody to listen to her.

“Yes! I would.” Amelie appreciates having a distraction from her work. She’s done with it. “A distraction from work is in order I think. I’m getting super tired of it.” She smiled at her. 

“no, a bread roll. a sushi roll would just be a waste of sushi,” she said, scrunching her nose. “oh, no, i was just like… drunk, during it. i snuck alcohol in through a flask.”

“oh, i haven’t been prom queen before, but that’s so sweet, thank you so much,” indy said, her ego growing each second she spoke to yejin. she needed to surround herself with people who called her pretty and a queen more often, she thought. she laughed softly at all of yejin’s questions, then, but it was filled with affection rather than mockery, indy more than happy to help the girl out. “it is a lot of fun. i thought i was going to hate it in high school, but it ended up being one of my favorite memories of the entire four years,” she explained, “you should totally go. you just have to let loose and have fun. it’s basically just a massive party where you get to dress like a princess for the night.”

“really? well i hope you get it this time!” yejin’s eyes were as wide as the grin painted across her lips. all of the talk about ‘prom royalty’ was thrilling, bringing a much longer stream of questions through her head— but before she could dive into those details, she did her best to channel her energy into a clearer path. she shifted again, this time to cross her legs for a more comfortable seat.

Amelie couldn’t help but laughing a little at Yejin’s reactions to her own question. “I’m working on a type of pulley system for a factory.” She was getting very aggravated at this design. It was…not working. “And the flowers are beautiful right now.”

“Yes! Im going to make some kind of… Thing… For Cape Sienna. Like one of those decorative quilts.” What it would look like was still a mystery but at least she decided on a gift. That was a portion of the battle down. “Making it might be a challenge but I’m sort of confident in my abilities. I’m thinking about putting their lighthouse on it.”